


The Stars of Fate

by sighduck



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, M/M, Story within a Story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-24 13:14:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21100052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sighduck/pseuds/sighduck
Summary: Journey once more to a land far, far away, as you've never seen it before! Hugo Award-winning author O.B. Kanayo's sprawling fantasy series "The Walking Skies" has quickly captured the imaginations of readers young and old the world over - and now you can see where it all began inThe Stars of Fate, the standalone prequel to the series, available for a limited time in hardcover with gilded-edge pages and full-colour illustrations from Sasaki Tano.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is inspired by Michael Ende's _The Neverending Story_... hmm, iiscos's I myself have torn myself to shreds... Naomi Mitchison's _Travel Light_, C.S. Lewis's _The Magician's Nephew_, and the many, many Stars War prequel fic I've read in the last month or so.

That long rainy weekend, Lucas caught a fever. Leah took the bus up alone to their dad's.

'What are you doing here!' said Dad, when he saw her standing in front of his apartment door. 'I could've picked you up, I thought you were staying home. You should've called! You know it's dangerous coming all this way by yourself. Does Mum know you're here?' And he fretted over her while she peeled off her raincoat and kicked off her wellies.

'It's fine,' said Leah, sniffing a little. It smelled like chicken curry and coconut rice, her grumbling stomach informed her. She hadn't eaten anything since lunch - and she hadn't had her dad's cooking in over a week. 'Mom's busy looking after Lucas. She won't notice.'

Dad paused. 'Well,' he said, pushing his glasses up his nose, 'I'm sure she's very worried, but we can call her in a little while. Let's get you into some dry clothes first.'

'What were you reading?' Leah asked, later, warm and cosy on the couch in Dad's worn old Arsenal jersey and a pair of polka dot pyjama bottoms. Some Agatha Christie murder mystery was on, but it wasn't very interesting. Maybe Dad was missing Lucas, too. Whatever the reason, the two of them sat and half-watched the television with their dinner plates in front of them.

Normally they weren't allowed to eat on the couch, but Dad seemed to be treating her very carefully tonight. Probably he thought she was feeling _neglected_. Dr Harada said it was perfectly normal to feel slighted or resentful when Lucas got so much more attention than she did. It was nothing to do with Lucas, actually; it wasn't like him getting sick so often upset her, at least not in the way everybody seemed to assume. If Leah could switch places with Lucas to make him better, she would do it in a heartbeat - but not so people, not so her _parents_, could content themselves with smothering her. She didn't know how Lucas could bear it. Still... sometimes she thought they'd still treat her different, even if she was the sicker twin. Sometimes it felt like they'd been looking for an excuse to forget about her all along.

In fact, she was pretty sure that Dad and Mom had had a bit of a disagreement over the kitchen phone over that very same thing. She hadn't listened all that closely, to be honest. The real tip-off was that Mom hadn't yelled at all at her, when they'd spoken. She'd just said that she'd come over and pick Leah up tomorrow, after she'd gotten a chance to see Mr Kanayo at the book signing. Leah had almost felt guilty about leaving without saying anything.

Almost.

'Now how do you know I was reading?' Dad asked, looking at her wryly.

'You always read when we're not around,' Leah pointed out. 'You only got cable for us. Plus,' she smiled, 'you were wearing your _reading_ glasses.'

'Ahh, you're just too clever for your old dad,' said Dad, sighing. Leah frowned. Dad wasn't old! 'But you got me. I was reading one of those books by your Mr Kanayo. He's a very unusual author, you know.'

Leah blushed crossly. 'He's not _my_ Mr Kanayo,' she grumbled. 'And what do you mean, unusual? Which book did you start reading?'

'Hmm,' Dad tilted his head, and squinted up his nose, thinking. '_The Stars of Fate_?'

'Oh,' said Leah, pleased. That was her favourite one. 'Well, that one is a little unusual. You probably should've started with _The Man with a Thousand Faces_.' That one was Lucas's favourite.

Dad hummed to himself. 'No, no, I like _The Stars of Fate_ just fine. I just didn't get very far...'

They looked at each other expectantly.

Eventually, Leah rolled her eyes, and gave in. Sometimes it was best to indulge the parental units.

'Well, then,' she said patiently, 'would you like to read it to me?'

'Oh, no, I simply couldn't,' said Dad, 'we're watching Miss Marple, and you _love_ Miss Marple--'

Leah scowled. So _that's_ why they were watching this. 'That's Lucas, actually,' she said stiffly.

Dad cleared his throat. 'Ah, right,' he said. 'I'll just-- go get the book, shall I?'

And he did. He went into his study, he came back with her worn old book, he sat back down beside her, and he began to read.

* * *

_A long time ago in a land far, far away_\--

* * *

'Don't read it from the beginning,' Leah interrupted. 'The beginning is too sad. Just keep going from where you left off.'

* * *

Are you sure?

* * *

'I'm sure.' And Leah snuggled down into the couch pillows, her feet stretched out over her father's lap.

* * *

Well. All right.


	2. Chapter 2

And so he read:

* * *

\--and one day the stars of Fate tumbled down from the sky into Queen Junn's lap. And through them Fate said, o Great Warrior, we read your ruin in our hands!

But the Queen laughed heartily to herself and said, why, what small hands does Fate have! With these do you carry me my ruin?

Deep in his heart did Fate store the sweet sound of her laughter. And he said: I know, my Queen, that you have spurned me often, ever since we rose from the earth. Know that I will not ask again for your heart, only once for your ear. Hear me, then, as I speak: there comes a human born, a boy child, who will destroy the fey. Say but the word, my Queen, and I will strike him down. For what is one more human unto the earth?

Well, why should he die, if he is meant to ruin me? said the Queen.

And Fate came down into her wood with a most bitter countenance. You do not believe me, said he.

Even if I did not believe in the sun, would it not still rise? said the Queen. (This the Queen said mockingly, for she held the night there between them for the length of a great many mornings.) You lose hold of the present by grasping for the future. But prove to me your words, servant - do not kill the child, but instead have him brought to me. I will take him as my son, a Prince of the fey, and he will love me and our people only; and if he is to strike us from the earth, let him do so at the cost of his own spirit.

So commanded, Fate travelled down into Tene, through the flaying filth of the slave quarters; and the misery and wretchedness he saw there turned his heart over. And he went down the roads and alleyways of that terrible place until at last he reached the hovel where the child had been born.

Now the child's father was freeborn, _pale of spirit / and of skin_, and he did not hold with the old ways; and before he returned home to his wife, he left the window open and ate the offering the child's mother had left there. And so Fate stole into the house with a sense of righteousness in his heart - but he paused there at the hearth, for he found the mother of the child awake, and her child a fiery blaze asleep at her breast.

And Fate could see at a glance that this dark woman had the stars about her. And he looked at her and knew that they had met before in many lives past, and would do so again in many lives to come. And the joy and sorrow on her face matched his own - for, it seemed, he always came to her with the same task: the taking of her son.

For a long time the woman Sem looked at him carefully, rocking her child back and forth. Finally, she broke the silence and said: It was foretold that you would be here.

And so, said Fate, bowing to her deeply, our long-awaited meeting has come at last.

* * *

Dad lost hold of the book somehow. It tumbled to the floor.

Leah blinked, and roused herself from the doze she had found herself in. 'Daddy?' she said, faintly.

'Sorry,' he said, after a pause. He picked the book back up again, found his place, and began to read afresh.

* * *

The woman Sem smiled to herself and rose to her feet, her child a sleeping sun in her arms. It is good to see you again, my friend.

But Fate hung his head in shame, and he could not meet her eyes. I am no friend, said he. You know why I have come.

You have come to steal my son, said the woman Sem, but I will not let you. And Fate looked at her with relief. No, sir, I will give him to you freely, for I know you will take him from the pain of this life.

But why should you give him to me, when I have failed him so many times! said Fate. And he clutched his face as he wept.

Only as often as he has failed you, said the woman Sem. Come now, how can you weep? This life you have not lived before. You do not know him, nor yet love him; but I have known him all his life, and love him more than mine, and I will never see him again. There is no emotion--

There can be no peace in this! Turn me away, please, sister, Fate begged, and I will deny her. I see no good in taking him again from you.

My brother, said his sister, you know I could never turn you away. Come, look at him now - look not at the past written on his brow, but at the future in his hands. The stars do not know all. Would you truly abandon your heart here and leave him to suffer, as you have tried before?

Hearing her, Fate's heart became as stone within his chest. And he drew himself up very cold against her. Very well, sister, he said. I will take him from you; but I will not love him, for that has ever been our undoing.

So he took the child from his sister, and he left her there to die in bondage. And when he brought the child to the Queen, she saw that he was changed in his manner, and that he had spoken truly all those many years ago: he would never again ask for her heart.

Somehow the thought came to grieve the Queen, and she named the child Anik, meaning _the final joy_. And Anik cried and clung to Fate, for he saw the stars of his mother in him.

But Fate would allow no such attachment. And he left the child Anik glittering in the Queen's lap, and fled her woodland court for the desert wastes, where he wrapped himself in the skin of man. And there he mourned for a great many years. And his grief blanketed him, and the sand and stars named him; and they called him Oberon. And the sun loved Oberon so well his skin as darkness became.

And he hid from both man and god.

* * *

The hour grew late. The rain fell steadily outside. On the couch, the young girl slept deeply; and her father read on in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anik is an actual name in Sanskrit, but it means 'army' or 'splendour'.


	3. Chapter 3

Now it came to pass one day, when Oberon was wandering around in the sands, that he heard a wailing sound. 'Now what could this be?' he thought to himself. 'Perhaps it is a calf, lost from its herd.'

And he went towards the sound, thinking to help the poor beast. Closer and closer came he, and it was only when it was too late to turn away that he discovered it was not a calf at all, but a human woman weeping bitterly, her two children clinging to her scarf in the sand.

'But what is this!' Oberon exclaimed. 'Nothing can be so terrible that you should weep so, stranger; and if it is indeed so terrible, weeping shall change it little.' And he spoke so for he had buried his heart in sand, forgetting joy and pain, and scorning the sight of both in others.

'O my Lord,' said the Lady, 'hear my sorrow now. My name is Pamad-i, and I have borne these two children, Laksa and Luc, and I love them well. But they are creatures in between worlds, and I cannot keep them without their father here.'

Oberon huffed out through his mouth. 'And where is that wicked father of theirs, my Lady? I will bring him back to you if you will but ask.'

'O my Lord,' said Lady Pamad-i, 'I ask for no such vow. For while you may be very great, the dead Queen Junn was even greater. It is she who cursed my husband before he slew her and burned her court to the ground. Even now he lurks in the fiery caves, a mindless, ravening beast, killing many and hurting more. His path must be his own now: he has gone where I cannot follow.'

Dead! Queen Junn was dead? Oberon staggered back at this. And he wondered if Junn had called for him as her court burned; if she had died waiting for his aid while he hid himself away.

'Very well, my Lady,' said Oberon, humbled before her in his guilt. 'I will come with you, and I will train your children to know this world and love it better than that of their father's. Only tell me first what it is you planned to do out here alone in the desert sands, with your children of two worlds.'

'The stars told me in a dream I would find an answer or my death in the sand,' said Lady Pamad-i. 'And if you had not stopped at my cries, I and my children would surely have perished.'

Oberon was greatly disturbed to hear this. 'My Lady, the stars,' he said carefully, 'do not know all.'

'Well, if they knew one thing,' the Lady told him, 'they knew of you. They may be a great force yet.'

And so, each of them took a child in their arms and made their way back into Abun, where the Lady and her children had made their home. Oberon had once known this city, and he was shocked to see it so changed: the glass windows of the mosque shattered, the university burned into ash, the great statue of Lanimeera broken down into bits of stone.

'My Lady... is this truly the city of Abun?' Oberon asked softly, taking in the re-stitched flags, the children running about with missing limbs and laughter, the smiling women who froze warily when he caught their eye.

And where were the men of the town?

'Yes, my Lord. What you see is all that remains of the city the wicked dragon Ra'bid left behind,' said Lady Pamad-i. She shifted her hold on Laksa, who slept deeply, and sent the staring women a small headshake. They relaxed their grips on the weapons in their arms, though Oberon saw that they still eyed him closely. For his own part, Oberon kept his own gaze focused on Luc, who was staring up at him with his forehead furrowed.  
  
'First Ra'bid came with flame...,' the Lady explained, 'and then he came with deceit. He bewitched the men of the town, and said that he would protect the town from a greater evil, if they would only join his army. And the men who went to him became as one slave, knowing nothing but the will of its Master.'

Lady Pamad-i's voice went low with grief. 'We lost so many that day,' she said. 'The women left behind disavowed the men who left; and the men who stayed behind became as women, to help in the fight.' She smiled wryly. 'So you must forgive the stares, my Lord. Yours is probably the first beard the women of Abun have seen in some years.'

Luc frowned deeply at Oberon's beard and tugged hard on it.

'Take care, little one,' said Oberon, catching his hand. There was something very familiar about Luc, he thought to himself. 'The stars are certainly great with Laksa, but they are even greater with Luc. Is that why you hide him so in silks? He will not thank you for the deception, I think.'

The Lady reached for Luc without speaking. Oberon gave him up without any fuss. 'The day my children were born... a soothsayer told me my husband would one day fall at the hand of my son,' she said. 'So I have no son, my Lord, nor any husband - I have two daughters only, and only one of them will learn to fight. Now come with me to my home to rest, and we will speak of this no more.'

'As you say, my Lady,' Oberon said. And he followed the Lady to her home, a small house on the outskirts of the city that she shared with her former servants, Setheppo and Ardant, who both ran out to meet them in the road. Now Laksa awoke when she heard Ardant's voice, and she scrambled down out of her mother's hold and flung herself into Ardant's arms with a great cry. And Oberon sensed that the stars flared greatly indeed with Laksa; and that she had realised, even if Luc did not appear to, how close they had come to death earlier today.

Setheppo provided a man's robes for Oberon to change into after he bathed, and Ardant provided him with a bowl of desert snake stew for dinner along with dried berry jerky for dessert. And as they all ate together at the table, Oberon could feel the sand slipping out of his heart, grain by grain. And Luc and Laksa later snuck out of their room and curled up around him in his sleep, stealing his terrors and sending them back into the stars.

Looking down at their fuzzy little heads, Oberon began to understand how their mother could've gone mad for fear of losing them. And he ignored his own misgivings at who he thought their father to be. Surely, surely it could not be--

* * *

The night air split with a sharp crack of thunder. The rain, which had petered out an hour or so ago, began again in earnest.

In her sleep, the young girl furrowed her brow and made a small noise of distress. Her father put down his book, carefully gathering his daughter up into his arms. Down the hall slowly he went, carrying her to her room.

'Wah-a 'sh-tory,' Leah mumbled into his shoulder.

'Yes, beta,' she heard her dad say soothingly. He laid her down into her bed, smoothed her hair back from her face and dropped a kiss on her forehead. 'Go back to sleep, ok?'

'Ok,' said Leah, sighing into her pillow. 'Love you.'

'Love you, too,' said the man fondly, watching her fall back into sleep. And he sat there holding her hand for a long time.

But eventually, the call of the unfinished book became too great to ignore.

And so the man made his way back to the living room couch, where he picked up the book again. And the man read long into the night, long after the storm slept, long after his eyes drooped and his neck cricked; and he only stopped when there were no more words left to read.

* * *

'What?!'

In a heartbeat - Leah was awake. Well. Sort of. When her dad burst into her room, she could only blink sleepily at him.

'Huh...?' she said, when he just looked at her with his eyes all crazy and his hair all mussed. 'Wh'time's'it?'

Dad looked briskly at his watch. 'It's 9.48,' he determined. Wow, she usually never slept in that late! Guess she'd been more tired than she thought. 'Leah, Obee One _dies_?'

Leah blinked again. 'Who?' she said.

'Oberon!' said Dad. 'Oberon really dies? He doesn't come back in any of the other books?'

'Well,' Leah yawned and sat up in bed, 'no, not really.' Had Dad gone to sleep at all? He looked twitchy and tired, like he'd been up all night doing something annoying. 'Um... Laksa has a vision about him in an abandoned temple in the third book. But... that's about it.'

'And it's supposed to be a _happy_ ending?!' Dad said, outraged. 'After everything Ra'bid did-- he _burned_ the world down for lack of Oberon, and he's supposed to just, what, _happily_ accept Oberon's death? And-and Laksa and Luc and Pamad-i needed Oberon, too! They all loved him, too! If he couldn't stay for Anik, at least,' Dad shrunk into himself a bit, seeming to remember himself, 'at least he could've held on for _their_ sake.'

Leah could see that Dad was becoming embarrassed about waking her up. And she felt a deep pang of fondness for him in her heart.

'Yea... um. When I finished it, I got really upset, too,' she said. 'It was so unfair. Ra'bid enslaves and kills so many, and because he doesn't let the sorcerer murder Laksa in cold blood, we're s'posed to believe he had a total change of heart?'

'Right!' said Dad. 'It's ridiculous!'

'Umm. But then I read it again,' said Leah, yawning again. 'I actually re-read it a lot. And I guess it all goes back to the whole theme of-- choosing your own destiny. You know? Like, what was it Oberon said at the end?' She paused to remember. '_The stars... do not know all. Everyone's fate... changes from moment to moment... and I know you will make the right choice_.'

'Yes, well. I still think it was Ra'bid who should've died at the end,' said Dad. 'He certainly didn't deserve his family's forgiveness.'

'Well... I don't think you can ever _deserve_ forgiveness,' Leah said slowly, thinking it over. 'That's why you have to say sorry. Right? Because you can't undo the things that you regret.'

Dad deflated all at once; and he gave Leah a long, wry look.

'That's true,' he said. 'I suppose no one can really earn a second chance. Not unless,' he smiled with some kind of ironic edge, 'they're extremely lucky.'


End file.
